Intersecting the Visual and Written Word

The Center for Art and Thought, a nonprofit organization that fosters dialogue between artists, scholars, and the broader public, collaborated with Behavior as a strategic partner to create a new virtual space for content curation, exploration and discourse.

Navigating the landscape

To provide multiple ways in which to experience each work within the site, we created three primary content groupings: Projects, Topics and Contributors. Users are encouraged to navigate the site and explore the site offerings through these main gateways while encountering the interconnectedness of each path through a carefully-designed taxonomy structure.

Multi-faceted perspectives

The interface juxtaposes and cross-pollinates works, people, and ideas to create a multifaceted storytelling platform. The virtual experience is geared to support an intermixing of forms of expression within both art, literature and scholarship in seamless and thoughtful ways.

Contextual richness

A “lean-forward” experience displays work and related meta-content that can be quickly scanned. This mode is centered on user engagement, presenting layers of information that give context to the pieces: artist attribution, background and location information are displayed alongside related works, topics and user comments. When the user elects to learn more, an inline panel below the work slides down to reveal details.

Unfettered view

A “lean-back” viewing mode enables an immersive full-screen experience focusing exclusively on the work itself, presented in a larger uncluttered view. Here the user can browse from piece to piece.

Visual brand

In addition to the website strategy and user experience design Behavior also created the visual brand for Center for Art and Thought. The logo is a collection of overlapping translucent geometric shapes forming the organization’s acronym “CA+T.” The intersection between the shapes reflects the convergence between art and critical thought. The earth tone palette brings warmth to the mark and gives it a visual and cultural distinction unique to the field.